More Than A Figurehead: The Keys to Hiring and Supporting a Chief Diversity Officer

Myra Caldwell, who was named Cadence Bank’s first chief diversity officer last September, certainly relates to the diplomatic aspects of the role, especially from her experience with bank mergers.

Ashley says anyone in the chief diversity officer role must have a nuanced understanding of how the corporate world works. Taking it a step further, it is also important to have someone who has knowledge and experience of a business’ industry and workplace culture.

Stephanie Smith was with Fifth Third Bank for 17 years before she became senior vice president and chief inclusion and diversity officer in 2019. During that time, she served in multiple roles across multiple business lines. She says such experiences allowed her to hit the ground running and speak to the unique culture of the business.

Once someone has been hired for the role, there is plenty of work to be done. Ashley recommends that any chief diversity officer approach the work concurrently from the top-down and the bottom-up. For Caldwell, who is still in the process of building the DE&I foundation at Cadence Bank, some of her most critical tasks are planning strategy, plotting internal assessments, building a budget and working with the DEI Advisory Council, which is composed of volunteer associates, to identify steps that Cadence can act on immediately to move the bank forward. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but keeping DE&I at top of mind is perhaps the most critical function of a chief diversity officer.

Sharing the story means providing feedback that can sometimes bring harsh realities into the open, according to Ashley, who also emphasizes that an effective chief diversity officer helps leadership assess the efficacy of their current practices and incorporate not just diversity but inclusion and equity into their overall strategic thinking and actions.

Ashley describes financial services as a transaction-oriented industry, which means for DE&I efforts to actually have an effect, DE&I must be treated as part of the business. In fact, as Smith says, “Inclusion and diversity is a business just like any other business.”

To ensure DE&I is treated with the same emphasis as other lines of business, there must be active and intentional buy-in from leadership and not just a rubber stamp.

But chief diversity officers can’t just be given the support of leadership; they need to be part of leadership. This means having the same level of autonomy and decision-making power as others at the executive level.

It also helps for leadership to be fully committed before a chief diversity officer is brought on, according to Caldwell.

In addition to having a seat at the leadership table, chief diversity officers must be empowered to penetrate the entire enterprise to avoid becoming “the appetite of the day,” according to Smith. That means creating a budget and a full DE&I staff.

“You can’t provide solutions and products without engaging the individuals who are at the other end of those solutions and products,” Smith says. “Those individuals are increasingly diverse.”

Ashley describes the work of chief diversity officers and those who support them as a journey, and every organization is likely on a different part of the path. Caldwell is still in the early stages with Cadence Bank, but she already has identified and begun executing the first steps, including improving the collection and understanding of the bank’s workforce data, hiring a director of supplier diversity as well as looking into industry best practices and third-party partnerships.

While working for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, among her numerous initiatives, Ashley launched the bank’s office of diversity and inclusion and its more than 10 employee networks.

Ashley’s work is now focused on helping other organizations improve their DE&I efforts and outcomes. For example, in 2020, the Bank Administration Institute invited her to facilitate the launch of a monthly roundtable series for chief diversity officers in commercial banks across the United States.

Collaboration, Not Competition

“A key indicator that we were starting to have impact and success was when the chief diversity officer was no longer the only person supporting [DE&I],” Ashley says. “It was encouraging to see senior management take an active role [in] the DE&I efforts, ranging from mentoring, sponsorships or participation with employee resource groups.”

“[If] we want to attract, retain [and] recruit talent, then we’re going to have to care about their perspective as a social enterprise,” Smith says.

“We can’t let up again,” Caldwell says. “We must follow through on our commitments and our promises. That’s crucial. I think by delivering some of the things I talked about earlier, it’ll ignite energy.”

“At the end of the day, everyone expects you to do this because you’ve made a commitment to do this, but it is in times of crisis that people are watching to see if the commitment will continue,” Ashley says, noting that the issues of 2020 highlight that race and privilege must continue to be part of the DE&I discussion. “We’ve got to put it out, deal with it, correct it and then move forward.”

“Inclusion and diversity is the one space in the financial services sector where we don’t believe there is competition; there is only collaboration because we all could get better at this,” Smith says. “And there is no off-the-shelf solution for inclusion and diversity or a cure for systemic and structural racism. It is something that we are focused on and we’re working together to solve.” •